* All pictures marked are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.

** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.

Description

Watermark:

Paper with a picture of flower design.

Avers:

Gottfried Keller (19 July 1819 - 15 July 1890) was a Swiss poet and writer of German literature. Best known for his novel "Green Henry" ("Der grüne Heinrich"), he became one of the most popular narrators of literary realism in the late XIX century.

His father was a lathe-worker from Glattfelden (1791-1824); his mother's maiden name was Scheuchzer (1787-1864). After his father's death, Keller's family lived in constant poverty, and, because of Keller's difficulties with his teachers, in continual disagreement with school authorities. Keller later gave a good rendering of his experiences in this period in his long novel, Der grüne Heinrich (1850-1855; 2nd version, 1879). His mother seems to have brought him up in as carefree a condition as possible, sparing for him from her scanty meals, and allowing him the greatest possible liberty in the disposition of his time, the choice of a calling, etc. With some changes, a treatment of her relations to him may be found in his short story, “Frau Regel Amrain und ihr jüngster” (in the collection Die Leute von Seldwyla).

Keller's first true passion was painting. Expelled in a political mix-up from the Industrieschule in Zurich, he became an apprentice in 1834 to the landscape painter Steiger and in 1837 to the watercolourist Rudolf Meyer (1803-1857). In 1840, he went to Munich (Bavaria) to study art for a time at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

Keller returned to Zurich in 1842 and, although possessing artistic talent, took up writing. He published his first poems, Gedichte, in 1846. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann characterizes these six years at Zurich (1842-1848) as a time of almost total inactivity, when Keller inclined strongly toward radicalism in politics, and was also subject to much temptation and indulged himself. From 1848 to 1850 he studied at the University of Heidelberg. There he came under the influence of the philosopher Feuerbach, and extended his radicalism also to matters of religion.

From 1850 to 1856, he worked in Berlin. Hartmann claims it was chiefly this stay in Berlin which molded Keller's character into its final shape, toned down his rather bitter pessimism to a more moderate form, and prepared him (not without the privations of hunger), in the whirl of a large city, for an enjoyment of the more restricted pleasures of his native Zurich. It was in Berlin that he turned definitely away from other pursuits and took up literature as a career.

In this period, Keller published the semi-autobiographical novel Der grüne Heinrich (Green Henry). It is the most personal of all his works. Under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's doctrine of a return to nature, this book was at first intended to be a short narrative of the collapse of the life of a young artist. It expanded as its composition progressed into a huge work drawing on Keller's youth and career (or more precisely non-career) as a painter up to 1842. Its reception by the literary world was cool, but the second version of 1879 is a rounded and satisfying artistic product.

He also published his first collection of short stories, Die Leute von Seldwyla (The People of Seldwyla). It contains five stories averaging 60 pages each: “Pankraz der Schmoller”, “Frau Regel Amrain und ihr jüngster”, “Die drei gerechten Kammacher”, “Romeo und Julie auf dem Dorfe” and “Spiegel das Kätzchen.” Hartmann characterizes two of the stories in Die Leute von Seldwyla as immortal: “Die drei gerechten Kammacher” he views as the most satyric and scorching attack on the sordid petit bourgeois morality ever penned by any writer, and “Romeo und Julie auf dem Dorfe” as one of the most pathetic tales in literature (Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet plot in a Swiss village setting).

Keller returned again to Zurich and became the First Official Secretary of the Canton of Zurich (Erster Zürcher Staatsschreiber) in 1861. The routine duties of this position were a sort of fixed point about which his artistic activities could revolve, but Hartmann opines that he produced little of permanent value in these years. In 1872, Keller published Seven Legends (Sieben Legenden), which dealt with the early Christian era. After 15 years at this post, he was retired in 1876, and began a period of literary activity that was to last to his death, living the life of an old bachelor with his sister Regula as his housekeeper. In spite of his often unsympathetic manner, his extreme reserve and idiosyncrasy in dealing with others, he had gained the affection of his fellow townspeople and an almost universal reputation before his death.

On the left side is short silver cross, as Swiss emblem. The cross reminds us that Switzerland's sovereignty is inviolable. For many centuries, the logo has remained virtually unchanged.

Denominations in numerals are in all corners, centered in numeral and in words.

Revers:

Kriech-Nelkenwurz (Geum reptans).

Geum reptans is a perennial plant from alpine screes and moraines living above 2300 m. up to 3800 m. in the Alps, the Karpates, and the Illyric mountains. The plant reproduces sexually by seeds and vegetatively by rosettes produced at the end of long, slender stolons.

Growth of G. reptans is slow, first reproduction on moraines is only after 5-10 years. Adults do not reproduce every year and the overall frequency of reproducing adults is low (circa 7 %). Germination rate of seeds at natural sites is between 0.7 and 2.4% (data from 2 years in two populations). Clonal establishment of new plants is much higher, between 53 and 74%. However, because of the much higher number of seeds produced both reproductive modes are contributing equally to population growth.

Comments:

The time of his birth his father managed several companies in India, his mother came from Germany (Schwaben). But he received his education in Switzerland.

His training as a graphic artist took place in Switzerland, first at "Orell Füssli" in Zurich and then in the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. 1923 was followed by a stay abroad at "Deffke and Hadank" in Berlin. As early as 1926 he became a teacher of writing and graphics at the arts and crafts school in Magdeburg. He practiced six years of this profession before he opened his own graphic studio in Basel with his brothers - Reinhold and Willi. In 1937 he was involved in the Pavilion of Switzerland for the World Exhibition in Paris from 1940 to 1943 he taught at the general trade school in Basel.

For Haas'sche type foundry he designed in 1945 the Graphique Font, in 1950 was followed by the Clarendon Font. Today these fonts are available from Linotype Library.

In 1953 he returned to Germany and became head of the department of commercial art at Werkkunstschule, in Braunschweig. In 1955 he joined the company "Fa.Reemtsma", in Hamburg, there to act as artistic collaborator.

He created numerous logos and posters. This also includes the logo of "Basler Verkehrsbetriebe" (BVB). The supported by two arms of Basilisk in Basel graced so many BVB vehicles than any other Signet before or since. In 1947 thus drove the first motor car. In addition Eidenbenz took over even the graphic design of the car numbers used from 1947 until today.

He created for Switzerland and for Germany In addition, banknotes and stamps. So he designed the first series of the D-Mark banknotes, issued by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the fifth series of banknotes of the Swiss franc, which came into circulation from 1956. The stamp of the German Post Office for the 100th anniversary of Carl Friedrich Gauss from 1955 was designed by him.